Texture atlases in cocos2d

I was just learning about texture atlases in cocos2d in Steffen Ittenheim's (sp?) book. They look very handy, and I can see the advances in memory, code and time efficiency. The question, though, is how to convey this to students who are new to programming? Is it worth worrying about? Do I show them the inefficient way first (as Steffen does), and then show the improved way, or do I just go straight to the "good stuff"? (presuming that a texture atlas is always the better way....) A texture atlas doesn't make as much intuitive sense as a one-file-per-sprite method.

I think that it Is a similar question to actions vs manual animations. What to teach in a limited time?

So, dear reader, what do you think?


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